This coral is found in shallow waters in the tropical western Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea.

Colonies of A. agaricites have several different habits of growth, but usually occur in encrusting sheets with irregular projections or are leaf-like or plate-like.

[4] A. agaricites is native to the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, Florida and the Bahamas, and is also present on the coast of Brazil, the Fernando de Noronha islands and the Rocas Atoll.

It occurs in both fore and back-reef environments, channels, lagoons and seagrass meadows, at depths down to about 75 m (246 ft).

[5] In the United States Virgin Islands, where a plume of sediment had killed a section of fore-reef, within a few years A. agaricites had proliferated and provided almost complete cover.